1. Technical Field of the Invention
This invention pertains to low latency message transmission. In particular, this invention provides a solution that allows send queue latency to be reduced.
I/O adapters define queue pairs (QPs) for conveying messaging information from a software consumer to the adapter prior to transmission over a network fabric. Industry standards, such as the InfiniBand™ Architecture Specification available from the InfiniBand® Trade Association and iWarp from the RDMA Consortium, specify that the message information carried on QPs is in the form of a work queue element (WQE) that carries control information pertaining to the message. The above-identified documents are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety. Also, one or more data descriptors point to the message data to be transmitted or the location at which received messages are to be placed.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Low latency message passing is a critical function in high performance computing applications. Typical data exchanges between system memory and InfiniBand adapters, that are required to initiate sending a message over the adapter, consume sizeable amounts of time.
Some SQ applications have a need to reduce the latency incurred during data transfer operations. There is a need for a mechanism to enhance the standard SQ operations so that the lower latencies required by these applications can be achieved.